Toronto Raptors Have 7-foot-5 Center — Will He Make NBA Roster?

As the NBA preseason continues, the Toronto Raptors are still fine-tuning their training camp roster. That is typical for this point in the preseason, as teams will waive and sign players on Exhibit 10 contracts. What often happens is another team elsewhere in the league will have a roster crunch and waive one of their training camp players who may be of interest to a different team.

That happened on Monday, when the Raptors picked up recently waived LA Clippers center Jamarion Sharp. With the Clippers having Isaiah Jackson, Brook Lopez, and the injured Yanic Konan Niederhauser at center, they have already waived two centers from their training camp roster, with Johni Broome, who was acquired from the Philadelphia 76ers earlier this offseason, being the other one.

For the Raptors, Sharp is a player worth taking a flyer on. At 7-foot-5, he is the reigning G League Defensive Player of the Year. While that is very difficult to translate to the NBA level, especially for bigs who often struggle adjusting to the pace of play difference between those two levels, there is no harm in the Raptors bolstering their organizational depth at the center position by bringing in Sharp on a training camp deal.

The Raptors have at times found themselves thin in the frontcourt, so perhaps Sharp is a player they would like to stash in the G League in case an opportunity presents itself.

Toronto has had a very active offseason, of course headlined by the reacquisition of 2019 NBA Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard, who made his 2026 preseason debut against the New York Knicks. Of course, that was not Leonard’s Raptors debut, as he played in Toronto for the 2018-19 season, culminating in the first championship in franchise history, a playoff run in which Leonard scored the third-most points ever behind Michael Jordan and LeBron James.

Sharp joined Leonard and made his Raptors preseason debut against New York, but he played just two minutes, showing this is likely a situation that ends up with him not quite making the main roster, potentially sticking around in the organization as a depth piece.

And at 7-foot-5, that is not a bad weapon to have further down the depth chart. If nothing else, the Raptors are showing a willingness to stay active up until the regular season begins. They will play New York again on Thursday night.